As a new take on the world ending disaster genre, “Concrete Utopia” shows the execution of a painful experience. Director Tae-Hwa Eom shows a cruel story that comes from a terrifying disaster in a carefully executed way. The screening that I saw of Concrete Utopia was at 8:45am and I was exhausted. As the story progressed, I became more and more intrigued. A single apartment building stands after a gripping disaster destroys everything around.
The film itself was paced as if you were biking down a hilly road, slow and then quick repeated throughout. For the type of film this is, I found that it worked really well. The slow moments give a short moment of relief from all of the chaos that goes on, right before it picks up again. There was always something going on, always some sort of conflict threatening the main characters and the civilization.
A science fiction such as this would require some pretty great cgi and set design, right? Well, Concrete Utopia did just that. Everything melded into the sets to look realistic and consistent. It was quite impressive how they pulled it off. The disaster itself was also absolutely insane. I was on the edge of my seat while watching it happen. A truly imaginative take on an earthquake.
The performances by all of the actors were truly something to get lost in. Truly some perfect casting choices in this film. They also all looked like they belonged together in this world.
Though the events at the end of the film were predictable, it didn’t impact the truly gripping effect that this film had. Every moment throughout the story bounced off of other moments to come together and create a devastating conclusion. All together, Concrete Utopia showed something other than a utopia, a disastrous community created out of desperation and thrown into strife. It’s a wonderful science fiction flick to add to your watchlist.
The Rating
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